I have previously written about when and why science began. Modern science is a product of medieval (not modern) Europe, but its roots lie further east. Today, however, it has become a truly international endeavour. Every nation contributes (see the infographic below), and science does not care what colour your skin is – only whether your ideas work. To deny science to Africans would be to condemn them to poverty, ill health, and (ironically) neocolonialism by the better-educated – so I hope that this call to “decolonise” science gains no traction.

3 thoughts on “Decolonising science?”

Nice post! I am afraid that “decolonising” much of science, given many subjects are so fact-rich, as opposed to subject to alternative explanations, is damn near impossible. It may not matter, for example, that Escherichia coli is named after someone (a DWM) called Escherich; it certainly does matter, however, that it is a commensal of ALL human colons, ad that it can be a pathogen.